John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, BostonNov. 22, 2023, marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. To commemorate that national tragedy, and to remember the man at its center, a few networks are airing programming that looks back at that day, and the life and legacy of the young president.
JFK: One Day in America
Sunday, Nov. 5 on Nat Geo
Nat Geo’s JFK: One Day in America, premiering all three of its episodes on Sunday, Nov. 5, is the second installment of the network’s One Day in America anthology docuseries franchise (the first was the Emmy-winning 9/11: One Day in America).
The series forensically explores momentous events in our history — in this case, chronicling in real time not only the day that Kennedy was assassinated, but also the days surrounding it, in hourlong episodes titled “Assassination,” “Manhunt” and “Revenge.”
JFK: One Day in America was produced in official collaboration with the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas and received exclusive permission to colorize the museum’s news footage archives for the first time, including film of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when he is in police custody, and when he is shot by Jack Ruby while being transferred to the county jail.
Weaving footage like that and other archival elements — including police radio recordings, live broadcasts and footage from dozens of television crews — together with new and archival testimony from those who were there, the series offers what it says will present a “comprehensive oral history” of that tragic day.
Some of the eyewitnesses who are sharing their stories for the first time in a documentary here include Peggy Simpson, the only female Associated Press reporter working in Texas in 1963 and an eyewitness to Oswald’s shooting; Rusty Robbins, a Dallas police officer who knew Ruby; and Bill Mercer, a local reporter who was the first to inform Oswald that he had been charged with the president’s murder.
Kennedy
Saturday, Nov. 18-Monday, Nov. 20 on History
While Nat Geo’s docuseries focuses on the days around Kennedy’s assassination, History’s eight-episode Kennedy — following the format of the network’s previous popular and acclaimed docuseries about U.S. presidents, such as the recent FDR — takes a wider view. It chronicles the life and legacy of JFK, including his early years, his personal life, his harrowing tale of survival in World War II, his journey into politics, his historic thousand-day presidency and his assassination. The first three episodes of Kennedy air back-to-back on Nov. 18, followed by the next three on Nov. 19 and the final two on Nov. 20.
Narrated by Peter Coyote, the series unfolds through a cinematic library of archival materials and over 70 new interviews with those well-versed in JFK’s history, including his niece Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Conan O’Brien, a longtime member of the JFK Library Foundation’s board of directors; Bruce Greenwood, who has portrayed Kennedy in film; and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eileen McNamara.
According to Ashton Gleckman, who wrote, directed and composed the music for the series, “John F. Kennedy’s time as president of the United States serves as a timeless example of how empathetic leadership coupled with charisma, idealism and the use of spoken word transcends time. … I hope this intimate yet epic story about public service, personal growth and leadership connects with young people, both this generation and future generations, as it did with me.”
JFK: What the Doctors Saw
Tuesday, Nov. 14 on Paramount+
Directed by Barbara Shearer (Loving Elvis), this film reveals startling medical observations about JFK’s wounds when seven doctors who were in the Parkland Hospital ER reunite to discuss a day none of them can forget. In never-before-seen footage from this reunion, the doctors share in vivid detail their indelible memories of what they did and saw in Trauma Room 1.
Several of those doctors there that day remain certain that what they saw looked like an entry wound – a bullet hole in JFK’s throat – an observation that contradicts what Americans have been told by numerous official investigations. This revelation would indicate that someone shot the president from the front, challenging the decades-old government narrative that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. JFK: What the Doctors Saw also examines the inconsistencies and gaps that plagued the official autopsy, raising even more questions about how many bullets hit the president and what damage they caused, leaving viewers with the looming question: Was there more than one shooter?
